Dejected BJP concedes defeat

Published: Saturday, May 16, 2009, 12:15 [IST]

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New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh on Saturday expressed his disappointment over the incoming election results, saying the BJP and the NDA never imagined it would be so devastating.

Virtually conceding defeat in the elections, Singh said: "We never imagined this unexpected result. We will sit today and assess where we went wrong."When asked whether the opposition National Democratic Alliance was in the process of breaking up, Singh said: "There is no break-up of the NDA."Senior BJP leaders like Singh, Balbir Punj, Prakash Javadekar and others have begun a BJP parliamentary party meeting at L.K. Advani's residence to take stock of the results and the plan of action to be implemented ahead."Trends are not on expected lines.

It is little disappointing....We concede UPA is ahead," BJP spokesperson Balbir Punj said at an earlier press conference at the BJP office in Delhi, as trends indicated that the UPA was racing ahead.Punj said the trends were also not along expected lines in the states of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala for Third Front.

Admitting that Congress "seems to have the upper hand", another BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said "as of now UPA is leading. We are lagging behind."Asked what went wrong, Naidu said "that has to be analysed. It is disappointing, I do agree".